In a typical wireless network, one or more wireless devices are associated with a common wireless access point, which may be connected to a wired network. Communication between wireless devices is through the access point. Such operation is known as the infrastructure operating mode.
The IEEE 802.11 standard for wireless local area networks (LANs) provides for an ad hoc operating mode in which wireless devices communicate directly with each other without the use of a wireless access point or a wired network. However, in order to operate an ad hoc network, the wireless devices require mechanisms to discover other wireless devices in proximity, mechanisms to establish connections to the other wireless devices and mechanisms to transfer data among the wireless devices. Such mechanisms should have low power consumption, should create limited radio interference and should have high throughput.